Clinton County is still under a state of emergency as proclaimed by the Albany City Council two weeks ago. According to Mayor James Bray, he isn’t ready to lift the state of emergency until Clinton County is farther along in rebuilding the water infrastructure.
As of Monday afternoon, Bray said city workers are finishing up their 69th water pipe repair and now have about 99 percent of Clinton Countians with water.
“Like these people who live in Hogback, they are at a higher elevation, we are trying to fill the tank out there and once it’s filled it should give them the pressure they need,” Bray said.
Even though crews have been working to repair leaks, there could be more leaks in the future or more leaks could be found. If that’s the case, the water will have to be shut off to some customers while those repairs are being made.
“That’s why we haven’t lifted the state of emergency yet,” Bray said. “I’m hoping by the time this comes out we can lift the state of emergency. The last thing I want to do is take it off and turn right around and put it back on.”
Being under a state of emergency, according to Bray, has allowed Clinton County to request the help from crews from surrounding counties, as well as apply for funding to address problems within the water infrastructure.
“We’ve had four crews plus ours working all week to fix more than 60 leaks within a week’s time,” Bray said.
Toby Church of Commonwealth Engineers, INC, said his company is getting started on the water study the county needs in order to begin rebuilding the water infrastructure.
“We collected a lot of data today,” Church said. “I brought three people down with me today and they are meeting with the water distribution people today. They are talking about getting master meters and getting them in the right locations, so we can get even better and get a nice water model built for the city so they can use it in the future when something like this happens again … hopefully it never does at this level, but now we have a nice water model and they will be able to look at the master meters and say we have a problem there, there and there.”
Without the use of correctly calibrated master meters, Church said its almost a shot in the dark as to where water problems are located.
Master meters are water meters that are put in place in certain areas of the county and meter water flow to large areas. If those meters are not working properly, the meters won’t read the correct amount of water that is flowing to a particular location.
Once those meters are in place and functioning properly, the city will be able to establish a baseline on how much water is being used and the type of pressure given to a particular line.
If someone in an area loses water pressure or loses water completely, data from the master meter in that area will give the city a better idea where the leak is in order to repair the problem.
“When we talk about putting in 20 to 25 new master meters, its so we can have accurate data to help those folks troubleshoot those lines,” Church said.
Church said we don’t have very many master meters and the ones we have are not working as they should.
“You have 12 now, which some of them don’t work,” Church said. “It sounds like we are going to be looking at putting in 20 to 25 new master meters.”
Church said it could be three to four months before the master meters get installed in Clinton County’s water system.
“We are discussing where they need to go right now and then we will get quotes from multiple vendors and we will try to have that back to the mayor by the end of this week,” Church said. “The mayor and I will try to come up with some money.”
Bray said he is going to push to get the money as quickly as he can and he thinks he can apply for grants to cover the cost of the meters.
“Realistically I’m looking at three to four months on getting those in,” Bray said. “It’s pretty huge to get done what all we’ve got done in four weeks time.”
Clinton County has received help from several counties and agencies during the crisis,  including, Monticello Utility Commission, Cumberland Co. Water District, McCreary Co. Water District, Burkesville City Water Department, Russell Springs Water & Sewer, Caveland Environmental Authority, and Kentucky Rural Water Association
“Those crews have gone above and beyond for us,” Bray said. “David Guffey and his crew have really stepped up. I’m really proud of all they have done.”